September 11, 2014
In class Essay
H Block
In my history
class, we have watched two movies; Glory and 12 Years a Slave,
both showing the immense thought process that one must have gone to be able to
produce such significant movies. I am going to prove that you can develop great
analytical skills, explore real events, circumstances, and attitudes by
watching these movies in a critical manner, and by doing research.
12 Years a
slave was produced by a black man, Steve McQueen, and according to imDb it
won many awards, the Oscars, in 2013, for best performance by an actor, best
achievement in costume, directing, and at the Golden Globes as well for best
performance by actors, best director, screenplay, original score and the list
goes on. From the site Box Office Mojo, the weekend this movie opened, in 2013,
worldwide, made, $6, 675, 731. Many Americans were clearly drawn to this movie,
not only because of the intensity of the film, but because it was based on a
true story, real events that happened to someone. I watched an interview with
Steve McQueen, on YouTube, and he said “What was so shocking to me was that I
did not know his story, I later learned that no one knew his story, so it
became my passion to inform people”. Slavery is a subject most Hollywood
filmmakers are scared to approach because it comes with a lot of controversy
and tension. This movie was so appealing to many different people because it
was a true story. It was not just showing an enslaved man and had some true
facts here or there, no this was a real story, will real facts, that happened
to a real person. Not all of these facts were true though, on the website
HistoryvsHollywood, it laid out which facts were truth and which were lies.
Steve McQueen added just a hand full of parts that Solomon Northup did not
include in his story, for instance, Patsy did not actually want to end her
life, and, Steven McQueen points out in his interview that, in the book Solomon
portrays his first slave owner as nice, yet Steve McQueen wanted to give the
impression that this man was the opposite. He was reading then passages from
the bible, yet not being a Christian by beating his slaves, and he knew Solomon
Northup was a free man and chose to do nothing about it. I have learned that most
of these events in this movie were definitely factual and that Steve McQueen
wanted to give Solomon Northup’s story to the world. He wanted to redress a
subject people forget about in their daily lives. I thought it was produced to
remind the world of the tragedies of slavery, but I came to learn through
research and critical thinking that it was so much more than that. Another
significant movie in America was Glory by Edward Zwick, who had the same
intentions as Steve.
Glory was
not as successful as 12 Years a Slave, it was made in a later period,
1990, and I believe many people were still trying to overcome the tragedies of wartime
slavery, therefore making it a hard subject to watch. According to imDb, it was
a huge success, however in my opinion it was not as big of a success as 12
Years a Slave. It won awards like Oscars for best actor, cinematography,
and sound, and Golden Globe awards like, best performance, but the list does
not seem as along as 12 Years a Slave. The weekend it was released, in
1990, it made $2, 683, 350, not near as much as 12 Years a Slave. So it
seems the audience did not react as positively, based off of the money it made
the opening weekend, as the audience did with 12 Years a Slave. Edward
Zwick said in an interview, “It is not an attempt to out-do Gone With the Wind,
it’s a chance to re-examine history”. This did not catch peoples eyes. It was
an excellent portrayal of the blacks fighting with the Americans in war, yet I
was not as involved as I was with 12 Years a Slave. I found myself
wanting to see more with 12 Years a Slave, it was more real, it was a
true story, whereas Glory was based off of facts. Edward Zwick says he
was “focusing on the regiment coming together, in all aspects”. Unlike Steve
McQueen who was focused on telling the world one mans story. On the
mythvsmemory website it states that it ignores the history of the regiment, the
confederate soldiers were not supposed to be the angry ones, the government was
supposed to look bad. But, Edward was adding in parts that he felt were needed,
as he read through historical documents to produce the film, he felt that the
confederate soldiers were hateful and wanted most to be portrayed that way, and
I agree with him. On history.net Zwick states, “I did it because I felt it
needed to be told”. These are the same intentions that Steve had, yet as a
human I feel that 12 Years a Slave was more prominent, and it was made
in a modern time period.
12
Years a Slave and Glory were two important, grueling movies to watch
and were told by two brave men, Steven Mqueen and Edward Zwick. I have learned
that, hearing what critics and the producers have to say about the film, and
watching the movie, I understand so many more things than I would have without
the research. It brought a clear point to my mind, that these filmmakers were
trying to bring humanity to an inhumane place, and they illustrated this well.
Sources, Film Research- Glory & 12 Years a Slave
Sources, Film Research- Glory & 12 Years a Slave
12 years a Slave Sources
Glory
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